The Marketeer

Exposing Cap'n Crunch

The two rumors swirling are that 1). Quaker Oats is retiring the cereal icon and 2). the "leak" of the retirement was a publicity stunt generated by a social media "strategist."

"Reports of Cap'n Crunch's demise are greatly exaggerated," Quaker said in a statement to Ad Age. "In fact, we just launched an official Facebook page for Cap'n Crunch. Now that our Cap'n Crunch brand is in the social-media space, our adult consumers can stay up to date on all things Cap'n Crunch."

Well, true or not, rumors of the Cap'n Crunch retirement party have given the PepsiCo unit a platform to toot the Cap'n's horn.

Some say the story of the decommissioning of the Cap'n started in an article noting that he does not appear on Quaker's main website. Then, someone (A Fox News blog) took that story and suggested that First Lady Michelle Obama's anti-obesity campaign "may explain why the Cap'n is less visible than he was in years past."

Then, rumors of a "full digital-guerrilla style" social media campaign began swirling. It appears that a boutique social-media agency called Giant Steps pitched the idea of a "Where's the Cap'n?" campaign which included "missing" posters. That quickly evolved into a full-blown "Retirement of Cap'n Crunch is a publicity stunt."